WAC Member: Richard Smith

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		Richard Smith

Richard Smith

1104 Walnut Street
West Bend, WI 53095
richard@hnet.net

Richard Smith is a composer and pianist/organist living in West Bend, Wisconsin. He was taught to read music at the age of three, before he was able to read words. He studied piano for fifteen years and organ for four years, graduating from the University of Wisconsin--Madison with an M.A. in History and a Music minor (1968). He was one of two guest composers (the other was Steve Reich) at a three day workshop at Colorado College's Colloquium of Modern Classical Music in 1971. He performed as a keyboard player in the Milwaukee and Madison area in country rock and variety bands in the 1970s and early 80's. He is presently the liturgist, pianist/organist at Holy Angels Catholic Church in West Bend and a teacher at West Bend East High School. He has performed in many Milwaukee area churches on piano and organ.

Smith has composed works that fall into three categories: classical, country and religious. His orchestral work "On a Country Road; Timeless" was performed by the Milwaukee Chamber Symphony (1978). His country song "One More Lie" was performed by Cristy Lane and recorded on Capitol Records and published by Tammy Lee Music (1984). His Christian songs "God Whose Purpose Is To Kindle" and "Celebrate!" were recorded and published by Trinity Music (1995).

Representative Musical Compositions

Classical

On a Country Road; Timeless: (1966-1970), 20 minutes. Three movements for chamber orchestra. Available from the composer.
Shenandoah: (1972), 20 minutes. One movement for Alto voice and orchestra. Available from the composer.
Centennial Overture: (1985), 5-7 minutes. For band. Written for the centennial celebration of the city of West Bend and first performed by the River City Irregulars. Available from the composer.
Piano Concerto: (1990-1996), 30 minutes. Three movements for solo piano and chamber orchestra. Available from the composer.
A Musical Diary: (1991-1993), 3 hours. Only selections from this work are available at present. It is a succession of relatively brief, inter-related vignettes for small ensembles of various instruments groupings. Some have programmatic titles. Others are simply dated entries. Available from the composer.

Country

"One More Lie" and "Comin' Back to You" are available through Tammy Lee Music, Nashville, TN and on Capitol Records as recorded by Cristy Lane.

Lead sheets and demo tapes for other songs, such as Nobody's Fool and Montana Morning are available from the composer.

Religious

God Whose Purpose Is to Kindle and Celebrate! are available on CDs, cassettes and octavos directly from Trinity Music at 1-800-976-9669.

Other works such as service music for the Mass, settings of psalms, and other contemporary Christian music songs and hymns are available from the composer.

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